Wednesday, March 29, 2006

You might remember the family who sat around in their stranded trailer for 17 days while watching TV reports about the search for them, and how once they realized no one was coming the finally got off their fat asses and tried to get help?

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The joy of a couple's rescue from the snowy mountains of southwest Oregon turned sour after they were arrested on drug charges in Washington state, authorities said.

Elbert and Becky Higginbotham were arrested Tuesday after they were stopped without incident near the coastal city of Long Beach, Wash., a Pacific County dispatcher said. The Higginbothams were in the same motor home where they spent 17 snowbound days this month.

Their rescue last week attracted national attention. Arizona authorities recognized the Higginbothams as a couple who had been caught with methamphetamine and a shotgun and then reneged on a promise to cooperate with investigators and disappeared.

Gary Butler, sheriff of Arizona's Navajo County, said he had arranged with authorities in southern Oregon to detain the Higginbothams and have them sent back to his state, where warrants were issued last week. But the couple went missing again Sunday.

Butler said the couple had probably faced probation on the drug charges but now could spend time in jail for felony flight.

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing